IT’S time for a reality check. Could we create over 100,000 jobs in Scotland’s renewable energy sector?
Yes; of course we could. I can easily envision a situation where there are companies here designing, developing, manufacturing, exporting, installing and maintaining a whole range of technologies. After all, we’re currently manufacturing the square root of not a lot so the potential is huge isn’t it?
Change that question slightly though and ask if we will definitely create more than 100,000 jobs in Scotland’s renewable energy sector and the answer is almost certainly “probably not”.
Putting aside the problems related to low levels of investment, our useless banks and similar obstacles, one of the other reasons for the “probably not” is actually self-inflicted.
I was always taught that we shouldn’t put all our eggs in one basket and so it worries me somewhat that our efforts – by which I mean the efforts of the Scottish Government and particularly Scottish Enterprise – seem to be concentrated on just two main areas. These are “Carbon Capture and Sequestration” and “Wind” with offshore wind currently flavour of the month.
Yet we dropped the ball on wind 30 years ago when Westminster killed off the wind technology R&D programmes and it was picked up by all the others who now dominate the sector.
No pun intended of course but “we blew it” and it’s now too late to do anything much with onshore or offshore wind unless we can come up with some devastatingly game-changing piece of technology.
Let’s not be pessimistic. Such things are possible, but are they likely?
No. Our best bet with wind is to try to work on encouraging inward investment and get the big players to manufacture at least some of their stuff here and to pick up other opportunities as we can.
The manufacturing of support towers for onshore wind is good business – potentially – as indeed is the building of similar towers or support jackets for offshore wind.
There are also a couple of companies looking at developing smart ways of accessing offshore turbines in less than clement weather.
There’s even a company that believes it’s developed a better generator. If it has it will soon be an acquisition target.
So there are opportunities in offshore wind to have a crack at and we should always encourage companies to do that.
However, I was very surprised to see an advertisement recently that says “Scottish Enterprise (SE) wishes to procure a framework of a maximum of eight suitably qualified and experienced offshore wind contractors to provide Expert Support Consultancy input and advice to a range of company types, sizes and from differing principle sectors, who are looking to diversify into the offshore wind sector.”
It goes on to say this is all part of the “Offshore Wind Diversification Support project which aims to support offshore wind supply chain development to ensure companies in Scotland are in a position to meet the industry demand in this fast-developing sector.”
The contract is for up to four years at a possible cost of – well you work it out. But that’s not the point.
The point is that any company that is considering getting involved in the offshore wind sector has probably already done its research, worked out what it might be able to do and who it needs to talk to.
Quite why they would need a consultant from Scottish Enterprise is something I really don’t understand.
The real issue though is not whether Scottish Enterprise is doing something which I think companies are – or should be – capable of doing themselves but that because of this seemingly quite narrow approach we could really be missing out on other bits of the renewables sector in which Scotland could actually punch above its weight because we could get in relatively early and certainly at the development stage.
For example – I’m pleased to see that some industry journals are now giving almost as much attention to Carbon Capture and Recycling (CCR) as they are to Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS).
CCR is all about using carbon dioxide as a feedstock in the production of value added products including liquid fuels, animal and fish feed, speciality chemicals, plastics and so on and so forth. CCR should have little or no impact on the cost of generation which will keep the bills down and the process produces something we can use.
Sadly though, as far as I’m aware all the real action in that sector is taking place elsewhere and notably in the US and Australia. Yet Scotland is renowned for its expertise in biochemistry and related topics such as genetic engineering. So why aren’t CCR and other bio energy technologies receiving as much if not more emphasis than wind?
Wave and tidal? Maybe, but we’re close to losing the plot on that market as well if we don’t get a move on.
What about energy storage where a viable solution could transform the economics of intermittent renewable energy sources such as wind?
We need to get smarter and pick out those areas of technology that could make a real difference and that we can create businesses around. Liquid fuels for transport is certainly one given Scotland’s spatial geography and population density and fuel for heating is another.
I’d not even rule out the idea of developing and building small electric vehicles in Scotland. In fact, we’re halfway there already with one company building hybrid buses and another electrifying an existing French car.
Even simpler technology businesses, such as manufacturing wood burning stoves and boilers, anaerobic digestion plants, micro hydro and others, need support. Witness the small wind turbine manufacturer Proven Energy which has gone into receivership as a consequence of a technical issue with one of its products and the firm did not have the finance to keep trading.
Scottish Enterprise needs to ensure Holyrood understands where Scotland can gain an advantage and where it can’t. That might include wind but it’s not wind to the exclusion of most else.
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